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Oct 1, 2018 at 9:43 AMOct 1, 2018 at 9:43 AM

No other rip-roaring Western comes to mind that begins with a nighttime gunfight out in the prairie, where the sounds are loud and the flashes of light are bright, and it’s impossible to tell what’s going on. But it’s clear at the end of that opening sequence that bullet-riddled bodies have hit the ground and that the film’s two heroes — Eli and Charlie Sisters — have killed six or seven bad guys in an isolated ranch house.

But, wait ... were the men the Sisters brothers mowed down actually the bad guys? Are the Sisters brothers heroes or villains? There’s no simple answer about the victims, because the story moves on without discussing them. But for the next couple of hours, the story, adapted from the Patrick deWitt novel, looks at, examines, tries to figure out what makes Eli (John C. Reilly) and Charlie (Joaquin Phoenix) tick and how their relationship works.

Knowing that they’re brothers, it’s interesting to look at their similarities and differences. First of all, they’re a team. They’re a couple of hired guns, working for a shady, wealthy fellow named the Commodore — tracking down and killing anyone who has crossed him — whenever they get a letter from him. Both are very good at what they do; they’re violent men who are comfortable with the fact that they’re just doing a job. They know no other way of life, nor any other people; they just have each other. They’re both intelligent, or at least well read, and can carry on informed conversations with each other and with strangers. They’re close, but they’re prone to bickering, often to good comic effect in the film.

Now for those differences. The most blatant one is that they sure don’t resemble each other physically. Also, Charlie is reckless. He drinks too much and often goes out of his way looking for trouble. Eli, though also a killer, is compassionate. He tries to better himself and would like to find the time to stop and smell the roses.

It’s 1851, the Pacific Northwest, the time and place of the Gold Rush. Though the brothers usually travel from town to town on their own, taking down whoever is next on the Commodore’s long and growing hit list, this time they’re working in tandem with another Commodore team member, the front man John Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal). He’s hot on the trail of a chemist and prospector named Hermann Warm (Riz Ahmed) who, claiming to have invented a process for finding gold, has also run out on a debt owed to the Commodore. The plan: John Morris will track him, then get a message to the brothers, who will ride in and do the dirty deed.

But why should anything go as planned? When Morris gets wind of Warm’s money-making scheme (which might be just a scam), he wonders if he should be helping to bring him down or to join him. Warm, too, has contrasting ideas rattling around in his head. He says that he’s found a way to become astoundingly rich, but he also has thoughts of helping to create a new society, one that’s not based on greed.

Among the questions that arise are: Will Morris and Warm end up working with or against each other? Will the Sisters brothers pull their act together and get the job done? What will happen when all four men meet? And, of course, does Warm’s invention really work?

All answers are provided, but the thing to remember is that despite the horses and riders, and the good guys and bad guys, and the small towns and blazing guns, this is not your standard, old-fashioned Western. Along with the expected violence, there’s a funny and sometimes goofy sense of humor. There are shifting allegiances. There’s an amputation. There’s a large, hairy spider. It’s an enjoyably off-center take on the genre. And it has an ending that just doesn’t fit with everything that’s come before it, but somehow fits perfectly.

— Ed Symkus writes about movies for More Content Now. He can be reached at esymkus@rcn.com.

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